lostmediaarchivefandomcom-20200216-history
The Magic Roundabout (partially found French stop-motion animated series)
The Magic Roundabout is the English-language version of the French stop-motion series Le Manège Enchanté. The show took place in a woodsy garden area with a carousel, inhabited by eccentric talking animals and magical creatures. Each episode (5 minutes each) was basically an everyday adventure with a touch of magic and surrealism. Both the French and English versions are different though, since the original English narrator, Eric Thompson, ignored the French scripts and gave the show his own style (which is why it was and still is very popular in the UK). Episodes In France, there are a total of 500 episodes, but in the UK, the exact number is unconfirmed as there were several episodes (particularly the exclusive batch of new episodes that were made and aired only in France from 1989-1990) that have not received an English translation. Some of the unaired older episodes, however, were narrated by Nigel Planer (while he also re-narrated a majority of the older episodes as well) during the early 90s, while Jimmy Hibbert narrated several episodes during the show's run on Cartoon Network. At the very least, the episodes with Eric Thompson's original English narration are in the BBC archives, and according to this website, there is a list of which episodes have aired, as well as the original airdates. However, some listings have unconfirmed episode names (as they are left blank, though they still have airdates and episode numbers) while other episodes are unlisted and apparently lost. Also, the exact number of episodes that Planer and Hibbert narrated is also unconfirmed. That having been said, several episodes with Thompson's narration have been released to VHS during the late 80s and early 90s in four volumes and a "Best-Of" compilation tape. The first volume contains the 1974 episodes, while the subsequent three volumes contain episodes from the 1970-1971 run. Also, 24 of the Nigel Planer episodes have been released to VHS in 1993 as "The New Magic Roundabout" (there was also a 1997 re-release of the same VHS, which included only the first 10 episodes). Additionally, four 1967 episodes from the original black-and-white series (along with the 1965 series premiere) have been released as a bonus feature on the 2nd disc of the Special Edition UK DVD of the 2005 CGI film. Except for the series premiere, the episodes include both the English and original French versions. As for the Jimmy Hibbert episodes, although only one episode has surfaced online, they are currently considered lost, as they only aired on TV and were not released to home video at all. The original French version had its own series of modifications as well. During the mid-1970s, when the show resumed production on ORTF after the 1970 film Dougal and the Blue Cat (Pollux et le Chat Bleu), the voice of Florence (a.k.a. Margote), Patricia Danot, re-dubbed her character for the older color episodes (probably to match with the vocal consistency of the newer episodes she recorded). When the series went into reruns in 1983, a new theme song "C'est moi, Pollux" was used for the opening and closing sequences. (It was also released as a single, which became very popular in France at the time.) The music score for several, if not all episodes, has been replaced with a new soundtrack with underscores of both the aforementioned theme and the show's second 1983 single, "Tourni Tournicoti, Tourni Tournicoton". The biggest changes occurred in 1989, when the show not only went into reruns again (this time on TF1 and La Cinq), but also began producing a group of brand new episodes (distributed by AB Productions), which oddly, were not shown to the UK, nor translated in English for unknown reasons. The series also utilized a brand new theme song and music score, which, once again, replaced the original theme and music score for older episodes. (Interestingly, the same music score by AB was also used for the Nigel Planer versions of the English episodes, although they still kept the original theme, albeit slightly modified, for the opening and closing.) These editions (along with Patricia Danot's redubs of Florence) are the only versions currently well-known and available to audiences today (as several episodes from this run were released on VHS and some can be found on YouTube), while the original and 1983 French versions of the older color episodes remain lost. Apart from all of this, both the English and French versions of the series have yet to receive any standalone DVD releases, and episodes that weren't released on VHS, are VERY hard to find on the web. Status Series 1 (1965-1968) Series 2 (1970-1971) Series 3 (1974-1977) Series 4 (1989-1990, France only) Category:Lost TV Category:Lost BBC Category:Lost Episodes Category:Partially Found Media Category:Partially Lost Media